title: alpha-Fetoprotein-producing rectal carcinoma--a case report.
abstract: A case with an alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-producing carcinoma originating from the rectum is described. A 71-year-old male patient, who underwent a rectectomy for rectal carcinoma, developed space occupying lesions in the liver and a remarkable AFP elevation (220,000 ng/ml) in the 6th month postoperatively, and then expired one year later. Histologically, the rectal carcinoma consisted of well-differentiated adenocarcinomas, and contiguous cancerous cells proliferating in either a medullary or trabecular pattern. In the "trabecular" areas, localization of AFP was confirmed immunohistochemically. Results of concanavalin A or lens culinaris agglutinin affinity chromatography demonstrated that it was between a hepatic type and a yolk sac type, and was considered to be an intestinal type. This could have been an AFP-producing rectal carcinoma, in which the patient experienced liver metastasis at a relatively early postoperative period and died. This shows that AFP-producing rectal carcinomas are highly malignant, biologically, similar to AFP-producing gastric cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taguchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sueda
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kojiro
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shirouzu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000556:secondary; D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008297:Male; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins